Akin Gump adds Portman aide

AKIN GUMP ADDS PORTMAN AIDE: Zachary Rudisill, who served as tax counsel to Sen. Rob Portman(R-Ohio), is leaving the Hill to join Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Tax lobbying continues to drive business on K Street nearly six months after the Republican tax law’s passage, and firms have been eager to snap up the relatively small number of congressional and administration staffers who helped draft it. In an interview, Rudisill said he’d worked on some of the provisions in the bill since 2015, when Portman co-chaired the Senate Finance Committee’s international tax reform working group, and served as Portman’s “right-hand man when it came to all aspects of the bill.” He previously worked as legislative director to Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.).

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— Rudisill is barred under Senate rules from lobbying Portman’s office or the Senate Finance Committee for one year, but he’s allowed to lobby other Senate offices, the House and the Trump administration. “Zach’s knowledge of tax policy and his strong relationships in the Senate and with the Trump administration will be an incredibly powerful complement to our team of tax lawyers and policy advisors,” Hunter Bates, a co-head of Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice, said in a statement.

NEW BUSINESS: Wells Fargo has added Cypress Advocacy to its stable of Washington lobbyists. The bank also retains Federal Street Strategies; the Lugar Hellmann Group; Morgan Lewis & Bockius; and North South Government Strategies, according to disclosure filings. And the National Retail Federation has hired Steptoe & Johnson, joining Alliance Management Group, Fierce Government Relations, Lincoln Policy Group and Prime Policy Group among the federation’s outside lobbyists.

WASHINGTON HASN’T SEEN THE LAST OF BLAKE FARENTHOLD: Former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who resigned from Congress last month after Congress opened an ethics inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment in his office, has a new gig. The Calhoun Port Authority in Texas has hired him as a legislative liaison. "Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the Port," the authority said in a statement to The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. "The Board looks forward to the services Blake can provide in assisting the Port with matters in Washington, D.C." Charles Hausmann, the port’s director, did not respond to PI’s request for comment.

SUPREME COURT RULING UNLIKELY TO AFFECT MANAFORT CASE: A Supreme Court ruling Monday on the privacy rights of an unauthorized rental car driver is unlikely to impact a similar fight over a storage locker searched during the investigation into Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, legal experts said. The justices ruled unanimously that the driver of a rental car has rights limiting searches of the vehicle under the Fourth Amendment, even if he doesn’t appear on the rental contract and wasn’t supposed to be behind the wheel. Manafort is locked in a similar dispute with prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office over the FBI’s search of a rented storage locker last year.

— FBI agents got a peek at the locker with the help of Alexander Trusko, an assistant to Manafort at the time, then used what they saw to help them get a warrant for a more thorough search. Lawyers told POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein that the fact that Manafort’s name does appear on the rental contract gives him a stronger privacy claim than the person in the rental car case decided Monday, but they still expect Manafort’s motions to suppress the evidence to be turned down. They say the two judges considering the issue in Manafort’s case are likely to rule that Trusko had “common authority” over the locker — especially since he was the lead renter on the contract — and that as long as it appeared that he did, the evidence will be admissible even if Manafort wouldn’t have approved of letting agents in. “It sounds like the government is going to win that one,” said Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University. A Manafort spokesman declined to comment.

INVARIANT SIGNS THREE: Invariant has added three new clients: Yelp, Counter Brands and GTx. Heather Podesta, Eric Rosen, Annie Palisi, Larissa Martinez and Patrice Willoughby will lobby for Yelp on “competition issues affecting the internet,” according to the firm. Yelp also retains Bloom Strategic Counsel. For Counter Brands, a skin care and cosmetics brand, Invariant will advocate for the Personal Care Products Safety Act and “educate on FDA regulation and safety in the cosmetic industry; monitor cyber security and privacy issues.” For GTx, a biopharmaceutical company, the firm will work to “educate policymakers about targeted hormone receptor-based therapies.”

FLYING IN: Members of the Convenience Distribution Association are heading to the Hill on Wednesday to lobby on legislation that would allow truck drivers under the age of 21 to cross state lines when transporting freight if they complete an apprentice program. They’ll also lobby on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps), among other issues, and will meet with Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Sens. Heidi Heitkamp(D-N.D.) andShelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)

COHEN’S WORK ‘NOT THAT UNUSUAL’: Washingtonian’s Vittoria Elliott asked James Hickey, a lobbyist for Day & Zimmermann who serves as president of the Government Relations Association, whether there was precedent for Michael Cohen’s work as a Trump whisperer to corporate America. “It’s actually not that unusual,” Hickey said. “This happens at the beginning of most new administrations. For instance, Billy Carter had lobbying contracts for a short period of time because the president, Jimmy Carter, was so new and unknown outside of Washington people were looking for any opportunity to understand. But things settle out as companies realize they need to go back to basics and work with experienced professionals.” It’s less common, of course, for someone to advise companies on how to negotiate an administration while serving as the president’s personal lawyer. Full story.

About The Author

Theodoric Meyer covers lobbying for POLITICO and writes the POLITICO Influence newsletter. He previously covered the 2016 campaign for POLITICO and worked as a reporting fellow for ProPublica in New York. He was a lead reporter on ProPublica’s “After the Flood” series on the federal government’s troubled flood insurance program, which won the Deadline Club Award for Local Reporting. He’s a graduate of McGill University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

About The Author

Marianne LeVine is a reporter at POLITICO who covers lobbying and co- authors POLITICO Influence. Prior to her stint on the lobbying beat, Marianne covered labor policy for POLITICO Pro, writing about regulations related to overtime pay, retirement advice and occupational health and safety. Her reporting in 2016 about domestic abuse allegations against President Donald Trump's first nominee for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, was a key part of the debate surrounding his nomination, which he ultimately withdrew. Prior to working at POLITICO, Marianne was an intern in the Los Angeles Times' Washington, D.C. bureau.

She graduated from Stanford undergrad in 2013, with degrees in International Relations and French and completed Stanford's Graduate Program in Journalism in 2014.